Seoul, Korea’s existing Grand Park is a basic big city park with trails, playgrounds, an art museum and a zoo. But major plans by design and engineering firm AECOM to transform the area into a mammoth theme park have just been released, snagging them the big win in an international competition for a concept design and feasibility study for the park. The proposal, called Gaia: The Living World, comes to life in renderings showing lush gardens, waterfalls, natural animal habitats, high-flying rides and roller coasters which look like they’d be a ton of fun. The design also incorporates a ‘whole systems approach’ and a closed-loop resource plan to use water, energy and materials efficiently.

In terms of sustainable features, AECOM writes, “Outputs from the urban agriculture [will] become inputs for the park’s cafes while animal byproducts will be processed in a bio gas system generating energy for site uses.” Water management has also been worked into the plan and the site will strive to capture, store, infiltrate and re-use every drop of water that they can. Bioswale filtration, detention channels and storage areas are some of the techniques that will be implemented.

Hopefully by the time it is built, the park will also include solar panels on roofs, wind turbines in the savannah, and a comprehensive recycling program.

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rcaillouxJanuary 6, 2010 at 4:52 pm

Hi Inhabitat! I’m an avid follower of your blog and forwarded your critique to the project manager. Please be on the look-out for some specific details on the sustainability aspects that drove this project. I hope you’ll update your entry or do an entire write-up on the winning design when you recieve these details. Thanks! And keep up the great work!!